The state of the art in the manufacture of reed switches before my inventions therein is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,944.
In that patent, I have disclosed a new reed switch in which the envelope is made non-circular in cross section and a reed is so formed as to permit it to constitute the sole means of positioning it in five of the six possible degrees of freedom while it is being sealed into its envelope.
The reed elements of the two-element reed switches described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,944 are made with a sealing section with an effective cross-sectional configuration complementary to and dimensioned to fit closely the noncircular envelope, and of greater cross-sectional area than that of the reed or contact section. This has required special forming of the reed elements. To maintain the position and orientation of the elements during manufacture of glass-envelope switches, it has been necessary to have a sealing section of a length to bear on unsoftened glass throughout the sealing step.
The present invention relates to a reed switch and method of making it, by which a reed element (or, in the usual case, each of a plurality of reed elements) and an envelope tube can be used to serve as the sole means for holding the reed element against movement in all six possible degrees of freedom, of using the dimensions of the envelope tube and reed element precisely to determine the gap between the contact areas of overlapping reed elements, and to produce a predetermined desired pressure of the end-bearing portion of the contact section of the reed element against the envelope wall to minimize bounce and flagging of th he reed contact, by utilizing the springiness of the reed element itself.